Friday, October 10, 2008

Apparently I really only want to eat cookies on this trip. Which is ok, since there are three other people to help me eat them. And my BFF Kelly has a much better camera than I do, and is a better photographer than I am.

Also, did you guys see the great article on Celiac disease in the New York Times yesterday? Probably not, since it was in the sports section. It's pretty good, focusing on the magic that is the gluten-free diet. Not enough people talk about how great being gluten-free is, and I feel like people think more about the horrors of not being able to eat everything they want anymore. When really, that's simple not true. For example, peanut butter blossoms!! I'm fairly sure you can make these vegan if you instead of egg use applesauce or something, and replace the Kisses with something else.

Preheat oven to 375. Cream shortening and peanut butter. Add sugars and mix until combined and a little fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla, stir until combined. Mix together flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt. Stir into peanut butter mixture, form into balls and roll in sugar. Bake 8-10 minutes, and immediately press (unwrapped) Kisses into the centers of the cookies. Remove to a rack, let cool, and eat while still warm. If you don't eat all 40-something cookies at once, they're best if you microwave them for a few seconds before you're going to eat them, when the Kisses are all melty and yummy.

It's like you knew... My neighbor insists on bringing baked goods to our house so her and her husband won't eat them all and our huge family will whoof them down in a second. Of course, I can never eat any of them and harbor a slight resentment. And lately... she's been bringing these over... my absolute favorite.

I haven't had time to bake so it's been torture! I told my mom she needs to start hiding them. haha

I just made these and they were scrumptious. Okay, I ended up tweaking the recipe a bit because I freaked out over the price of xanthan gum. Instead of using the flour mix I used Pamela’s pancake and baking mix and skipped the xanthan gum. I made the cookies on the smaller side and managed to get over 50 from one batch. Great recipe, thanks for sharing!